Nursing homes and debt collectors are taking advantage of laxed regulation on laws prohibiting the harassment of residents’ friends and family for care facility costs according to a recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. More and more individuals with loved ones residing in nursing homes have declared bankruptcy, had their wages unlawfully garnished, and even their homes repossessed after signing “admission agreements” that designate them liable for nursing home payments.

Desperate pleas for more proactive regulation of federal protections has caused the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to step in and send nursing homes and debt collection agencies warnings to cease unlawful practices. ABC News recently reported on how these practices are affecting residents and their families along with what steps the government has taken to prevent predatory debt collection.

“Rohit Chopra, director of the consumer bureau, held a virtual public hearing with advocates, nursing home administrators and people affected by what they say are unlawful debt collection practices.
Anna Anderson, a consumer protection lawyer in New York, said she has seen hundreds of lawsuits filed against friends and family of care home residents that seek reimbursement for facilities' costs.
‘It’s not only routine’ she said. ‘It’s a deeply troubling practice.’
She said it ‘puts families in a position of having to choose between protecting their family members at nursing facilities or putting themselves in a position of financial ruin.’
…
The Nursing Home Reform Act prevents facilities “from requiring a person other than the resident to assume personal responsibility for any cost of the resident’s care.”
But why that seems to happen so often is due in part to lax government enforcement, said Eric Carlson, a lawyer at Justice in Aging. Carlson said during the hearing that agencies in charge of oversight rarely cite and fine companies that require third parties to sign admission agreements.
David Bifulco, a Pennsylvania lawyer who represents debtors sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars, said the bureau and other agencies should educate federal and local courts about the prevalence of the problem, before a default judgment is entered.”

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